National Catholic Reporter: Content by Marianne Duddy-Burkehttps://www.ncronline.org/rss.xml/74196
enCardinal's words on same-sex blessings show church's broader dilemmahttps://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/cardinals-words-same-sex-blessings-show-churchs-broader-dilemma
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Two same-sex partners exchange wedding bands during a 2017 ceremony at the civil registry office in Munich. (CNS/EPA/Marc Mueller) </div>
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<p>In a recent radio interview, Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich-Freising said the Catholic Church needs to provide better pastoral support for lesbian or gay people but stopped short of endorsing blessings for same-sex couples as a general practice or policy.</p>
<p>At the same time, he appeared to leave open the possibility of such blessings in individual cases. Marx is the third German bishop, and the highest-ranking by far, to have <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/node/161141" target="_blank">raised the possibility of same-sex blessings</a> in recent months.</p>
<p>Marx, the archbishop of Munich, is one of the most influential leaders in the Catholic Church. He serves on Pope Francis' Council of Cardinals, heads the German Bishops' Council, and is president of the <a href="http://www.comece.eu/" target="_blank">Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community</a>.</p>
<p>An English translation of the interview quotes Marx as saying, in response to a question on how the church should deal with gay people, "We must be pastorally close to those who are in need of pastoral care and also want it. And one must also encourage priests and pastoral workers to give people encouragement in concrete situations. I do not really see any problems there. An entirely different question is how this is to be done publicly and liturgically. These are things you have to be careful about, and reflect on them in a good way."</p>
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Cardinal Reinhard Marx (CNS/EPA/Sascha Steinbach) </div>
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<p>In addressing how a church that bans same-sex marriage could minister to couples, Marx said, "That does not mean that nothing happens, but I really have to leave that to the pastor on the ground, accompanying an individual person with pastoral care. There you can discuss things, as is currently being debated, and consider: How can a pastoral worker deal with it? However, I really would emphatically leave that to the pastoral field and the particular, individual case at hand, and not demand any sets of rules again — there are things that cannot be regulated."</p>
<p>Marx's struggle to articulate a coherent strategy for addressing the needs of the church's gay and lesbian members (the interview does not seem to have included any reference to transgender, intersex or bisexual people) once again shows the dilemma for those trying to work within the framework of current doctrine, church structure and political polemic of institutional Catholicism. There seems to be a recognition by the cardinal that current dogma and practice are failing many in the church, and a desire to find ways to respond to their needs. Marx sees pastoral responses to individual situations as the solution.</p>
<p>The problem with this approach is that it reinforces the church's official view of lesbian and gay individuals and same-sex couples as less than full members of the body of Christ. It requires priests and other pastoral workers to determine whether an individual situation merits the risk of a secret blessing, and implicit validation of the person's sexual orientation and intimate relationships.</p>
<p>This puts both the seeker and the giver in tenuous positions, subject to criticism and attacks from those who find such action contrary to church teaching — which, in fact, it would be.</p>
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<p>Perhaps the only way for the institution to change is through an incremental approach, whereby the number of individual cases gradually increases, and the experience of those involved somehow convinces a sufficient number of those in authority that a change in doctrine is merited. Then the process of debating the theology and tradition that might support such a change could begin. How long such discernment might take is anyone's guess.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the official church's persistent inability to fully embrace LGBTQI people and their families will continue to drive away not only many of them, but also many members of their extended families, friends, and allies — not to mention massive numbers of young people in general. As Marx and other leaders struggle to figure out how to resolve what is admittedly a complex dilemma for the church, LGBTQI people, allies and family members must be an integral part of the conversation.</p>
<p>It bears noting that, in the United States and many other parts of the world, the people of the church are far ahead of its leadership on LGBTQI issues. In countries where same-sex marriage is legal, tens of thousands of Catholics have rejoiced in witnessing the civil marriages of their children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, cousins and friends, many in ceremonies that include a spiritual blessing.</p>
<p>Countless others, especially where marriage equality has yet to be achieved, have joined their loved ones in rituals that celebrate the commitments lesbian and gay couples have made to each other. Their presence and pledge to honor and support these couples represent the triumph of love over law.</p>
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<p>Members of our community who love the church and seek to be full and equal members of it are in the best position to advise church leaders on appropriate pastoral care and theology. There are many of us who are willing to share our stories, hopes, and challenges if we know we will be listened to with open-mindedness and respect.</p>
<p>In the meantime, we offer the <a href="https://www.dignityusa.org/page/dignityusa-letter-pastoral-care-lesbian-gay-bisexual-and-transgender-lgbt-people-2007" target="_blank">Letter on Pastoral Care of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) People</a>, written by members of DignityUSA in 2007, as a starting point for understanding our perspective on what is needed.</p>
<p>It is a hopeful sign that Marx, other German bishops, and indeed numerous Catholic Church leaders around the world are grappling openly with the place of LGBTQI people in the church. An even more hopeful step will occur when church leaders finally engage the true experts in this struggle in genuine dialogue, and we begin to work out solutions together.</p>
<p>[Marianne Duddy-Burke is executive director of DignityUSA. Jeffrey Stone is a former member of the DignityUSA board of directors and currently serves as director of media relations, as well as on the Dignity/New York steering committee. He is a co-author of <em>Growing Up Catholic</em>.]</p>
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Sat, 17 Feb 2018 09:00:00 +0000Teresa Malcolm161757 at https://www.ncronline.orgKick-starting a new Catholic conversationhttps://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/kick-starting-new-catholic-conversation
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<p>The sorry state of the Catholic conversation about same-sex love prompts us to make a constructive proposal. If we have any hope of moving the discussion in a justice-seeking direction, we need a new approach to the problems of homohatred and heterosexism that begins not with church teaching but with real people’s lives. Rehashing old arguments on the morality of sexual activity, about which there is substantial and deeply hurtful disagreement, is useless.</p>
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<p>It is time to listen to the experiences and expertise of people who speak with integrity rather than authority.</p>
<p class="tweet_this"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://www.ncronline.org/authors/74196/feed&amp;via=ncronline&amp;text=It is time to listen to the experiences and expertise of people who speak with integrity rather than authority." target="_blank">Tweet this</a></p> </div>
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<p>We are Catholic lesbian/queer women who enjoy our sexuality and rejoice in our relationships. We love out loud. It is time to listen to the experiences and expertise of people who speak with integrity rather than authority, whose lives are not circumscribed by clericalism, people who are free to be honest and transparent.</p>
<p>We need wisdom from many Catholic perspectives, not limiting "Catholic" to institutional church teaching on matters on which the vast majority of Catholics have left the hierarchy behind. It is time to grow up and use "I" statements instead of making pronouncements or pretending to be above the fray. </p>
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<p>Therefore, we declare a moratorium on ecclesial-speak and begin anew with human-to-human, Catholic-to-Catholic conversation about sexuality, not just homosexuality, in the frame of global justice. The crying needs of the world — ecocide, violence against women, war, racism and poverty — do not permit us the luxury of endless debates about bedroom issues.</p>
<p>We open this discussion because we are barred structurally due to our gender from Catholic decision-making. We have been disinvited, or told we have been passed over, more times than we can count by Catholic institutions because of being out and proud. Ironically, we each have other areas of expertise — social ethics, ecclesiology, liturgy, religion and politics — that are lost on the larger church when our voices are silenced. </p>
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<p>We simply do not have the conditions for a useful conversation if churchmen talk with one another and at or about the rest of us.</p>
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<a href="/news/justice/ncr-podcast-conversation-sexuality-gender-and-catholic-church" target="_blank"><strong>Read this Next:</strong> NCR Podcast: A conversation on sexuality, gender and the Catholic Church</a></div>
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<p>Wisdom on sexuality is not found primarily in documents, lectures and books that emanate from the institutional church and its employees. Misogyny and kyriarchy make that impossible. The extent to which women and many people of color are not in the discussion, and the plain fact that our experiences are not reflected in the discourse render those sources moot. Likewise, the interstructured ways in which racism, white supremacy, colonialism, ableism and the like combine with sexism and heterosexism to undergird ecclesial structures mean that we simply do not have the conditions for a useful conversation if churchmen talk with one another and at or about the rest of us.</p>
<p>The current Catholic conversation in the United States sounds like wheels spinning in deep sand. For example, Catholic Church officials still dither and wring their hands over whether long partnered, now even married, same-sex couples are living in sin, a matter long settled in the minds of most American Catholics. Rehearsing it only draws attention to how pitiful the arguments are against the obvious grace of committed love. It is hard to imagine what insights they would have into dating, casual sex or other everyday matters.</p>
<p>We respectfully but insistently ask clerics to please be quiet, listen and learn about some of the issues our children face: the many ways there are to be transgender; how to live in a nonbinary world; how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases; how to date and partner safely and with pleasure; what it means to unexpectedly fall in love with someone of the same sex or to be in love with someone whose gender identity changes; what it means to be asexual; how to cope with the insidious violence too often encountered in intimate relationships.</p>
<p>Young people know how complex and confusing it all is. They get few if any helpful Catholic resources. It is no wonder young people become "nones" or "never agains" when it comes to religion. We can do better, but not if we waste time and talent on empty rhetoric and bridges that go nowhere.</p>
<p>Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center in Bangor, Pennsylvania, recently celebrated 40 years of LGBTIQ faith-based programs. The great Jesuit theologian and gay priest <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/node/30908" target="_blank">John McNeill</a> provided invaluable leadership there for many years when he was banned from Catholic institutions for being out and proud. His ashes are buried at Kirkridge. We celebrated his memory with reverence and delight. McNeill started an important conversation when he wrote <em>The Church and the Homosexual</em> in 1976. But Catholics never as much as hear his name whispered, even by Jesuits, in contemporary conversations about same-sex love.</p>
<p>The initial meeting of the Conference for Catholic Lesbians was held in November 1982 at Kirkridge. The keynote address by <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/node/106901" target="_blank">Mercy Sr. Theresa Kane</a> was memorably supportive. Her kind, pastoral, and prophetic words of comfort and challenge to that group, at a moment when she was in her own deep weeds with the Vatican, are seared on the hearts of scores of women. She admitted that she did not know much about our topic, but that she had gone to a New Ways Ministry symposium and met some same-sex couples. She saw love there, she told us, and as a Christian she had the responsibility to sit up and take notice. Notice she did, and we are forever in her debt for affirming our love.</p>
<p>By contrast, the stale, "he said he said" character of the current debate is unhelpful. To be blunt, the sight of clerics duking it out on same-sex love is not pretty. Catholics understand that the world in general — universities, governments, businesses, families, other religions — are rapidly coming to accept same-sex love as healthy, good, natural and holy. At the same time, society at large is reading about <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/node/113316" target="_blank">clergy sexual abuse</a>, <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/node/153441" target="_blank">diplomats who are secreted home to Rome</a> with pending kiddie porn charges, and even a <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/node/152311" target="_blank">priest who served jail time for cross-burning</a>, neglected to pay restitution, but apparently wasn't vetted for ministry any better than the rest.</p>
<p>Fortunately, there are plenty of same-sex loving Catholics, and our allies, who are engaged in forward-looking conversations, albeit excluded from institutional church deliberations. The recent Dignity Convention featured conversations about diversity, children, aging and interstructured analysis of oppression. These are Catholic social justice priorities that LGBTIQA groups address when they get beyond what Catholic moral theologian Daniel Maguire called aptly "pelvic zone" matters. </p>
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<p>Lots of Catholics will be in St. Louis for the October 2017 <a href="https://rollingthestoneaway.org/program-schedule/" target="_blank">"Rolling the Stone Away: Generations of Love and Justice"</a> conference. We will join hundreds of our colleagues from myriad Christian groups to reflect on and celebrate decades of successful work on same-sex issues. Many denominations now welcome everyone and ordain LGBTIQA clergy because of the struggles led by pioneers like Janie Spahr (Presbyterian), Carter Heyward (Episcopalian), and Nancy Wilson (Metropolitan Community Churches). The United Methodists just commissioned their first openly nonbinary trans deacon. </p>
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<p>Let us leave aside the old ecclesial frames and opt for listening to the stories of one another's lives.</p>
<p class="tweet_this"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://www.ncronline.org/authors/74196/feed&amp;via=ncronline&amp;text=Let us leave aside the old ecclesial frames and opt for listening to the stories of one another&#039;s lives." target="_blank">Tweet this</a></p> </div>
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<p>Catholics have a lot to share despite the stalled out conversation among clerics. Ask our ecumenical colleagues with whom we have been rolling away the stone for years. They look to us for theological sophistication because they know we know how to think about the Divine and the world in tandem. They expect us to contribute liturgies, like same-sex marriage rites and celebrations of trans people renaming themselves, because they know our church does ritual well. They want our insights on moral and ethical matters because they trust not the institutional church, but groups like the Catholic Worker and many women's religious orders that are in the vanguard of social struggle in nonviolent and peace-seeking ways.</p>
<p>Our proposal is an invitation. Let us leave aside the old ecclesial frames and opt for listening to the stories of one another's lives. Then bring those stories to contemplative prayer and vigorous discussion. Let the best scholarship in the social and biological sciences inform our conversations. Let theological light shine from informed sources both Catholic and beyond. Then, even though we will inevitably disagree on some points, we can get on with the work of being a useful faith community confronting the crying needs of the world — ecocide, violence against women, war, racism and poverty — together. As the Irish-American, gay Catholic activist Brendan Fay put it so poetically, "It's about the sheets and the streets." Now that's a good place to start a conversation.</p>
<p>[Mary E. Hunt is a feminist theologian who is co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Maryland. <span style="font-size: 13px;">Jamie L. Manson is NCR books editor. She received her Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, where she studied Catholic theology and sexual ethics. </span><span style="font-size: 13px;">Marianne </span>Duddy-Burke<span style="font-size: 13px;"> is executive director of </span>DignityUSA<span style="font-size: 13px;">.]</span></p>
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This story appeared in the paper...
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<a href="/issues/oct-20-nov-2-2017" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oct 20-Nov 2, 2017</a> </span>
Mon, 02 Oct 2017 08:00:00 +0000Mick Forgey154321 at https://www.ncronline.orgCatholic schools' contracts are unfair to LGBT communityhttps://www.ncronline.org/news/people/catholic-schools-contracts-are-unfair-lgbt-community
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by Marianne Duddy-Burke </div>
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Perspective </span>
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<p><strong>Opinion:</strong> It seems administrators in some Catholic schools are prepared to post signs that say, "No gay people need apply."</p>
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Thu, 03 Apr 2014 19:13:16 +0000Pam Hackenmiller74201 at https://www.ncronline.org